'Tyson Foods, Inc.' () is an
American multinational corporation based in
Springdale,
Arkansas, that operates in the
food industry. The
company is the world's largest processor and marketer of
chicken,
beef, and
pork, and annually exports the largest percentage of
beef out of the
United States. With 2005 sales of
US$26 billion, Tyson Foods is the second-largest food production company in the
Fortune 500, the largest meat producer in the world, and according to
Forbes one of the 100 largest companies in the United States.
The company makes a wide variety of
protein-based and prepared food products at its 123
food processing plants. Tyson Foods has approximately 107,000
employees, who work at more than 300 facilities in the United States and throughout the world. Tyson works with 6,729 contract chicken growers.
Tyson Foods is one of largest U.S. marketers of
value-added chicken, beef and pork to retail grocers, broad line foodservice distributors and national fast food and full service restaurant chains; fresh beef and pork; frozen and fully-cooked chicken, beef and pork products; case-ready beef and pork; supermarket deli chicken products; meat toppings for the pizza industry and retail frozen pizza; club store chicken, beef and pork; ground beef and flour tortillas.
Tyson Foods is a supplier of all
Yum! Brands chains that use chicken (including
Kentucky Fried Chicken and
Taco Bell), as well as
McDonald's,
Burger King,
Wendy's,
Wal-Mart,
Kroger,
Costco,
IGA,
Beef O'Brady's, small restaurant businesses and
prisons.
History
In 2001, Tyson Foods acquired
IBP, Inc., United States' biggest
beef packer and number two
pork processor, for
US$3.2 billion in cash and
stock. Tyson has also acquired such companies as
Hudson Foods Company, Garrett poultry, Washington Creamery, Franz Foods,
Prospect Farms, Krispy Chickens, Ocoma Foods, Cassady Broiler,
Vantress Pedigree,
Wilson Foods,
Honeybear Foods,
Mexican Original,
Valmac Industies,
Heritage Valley, Lane Processing,
Cobb-Vantress,
Holly Farms, and
Wright Brand Foods, Inc. on the way to its rise as the World's top food processor and marketer. It also acquired along with its purchase of
IBP, Inc., the naming rights to an event center in
Sioux City,
Iowa.
Corporate operations
Tyson employs 107,000 people. Tyson has 6,729 independent contract chicken growers.
Current members of the
board of directors of Tyson Foods are: Richard Bond,
Lloyd Hackley,
Scott T. Ford,
Jim Kever,
Jo Ann Smith,
Leland Tollett, Barbara Tyson,
Don Tyson,
John Tyson, and
Albert Zapanta.
Sustainability reporting
The Tyson Foods 2005 Sustainability Report (
English, 3.99MB |
en Espanol, 2.44MB) provides an overview of the company's triple bottom line reporting. The information in this report, unless otherwise noted, covers fiscal year (FY) 2005 (October 3, 2004 to October 1, 2005). It primarily focuses on Tyson operations within the United States, with some additional information provided on international operations.
Production and facilities
Every week, Tyson's 54 chicken plants process 42.5 million chickens, their 13 beef plants process 170,938 cattle, and six pork plants process 347,891 pigs. The largest meatpacking facility owned by Tyson Foods is their beef production plant in
Dakota City,
Nebraska.
★ Prepared foods: 27
★ Case-ready beef and pork: 3
★ Fully-cooked beef and pork: 1
★ Animal protein: 9
★ Pet food: 19
★ Tanneries/hide treatment facilities: 8
★ Tallow refinery: 1
★ Cold storage warehouses: 65
★ Forward warehousing/distribution centers: 10
★ Hatcheries: 64
★ Feed mills/feed blending facilities: 40
Products and brands
Tyson produces many kinds of products. A couple of them are Buffalo Wings, Boneless Buffalo Wings, and Chicken Nuggets and Tenders.
Tyson Renewable Energy
Tyson's processing plants are left with a vast supply of animal fats. In late 2006, the company created a business unit called Tyson Renewable Energy to examine ways to commercialize use of this leftover material by converting it into biofuels.
[1] The unit is also examining the potential use of poultry litter to generate energy and other products.
[2] On
April 16,
2007, Tyson announced a
joint venture with
ConocoPhillips to produce roughly 175 million gallons of biodiesel a year— enough to run Tyson Foods' truck fleet for 3.5 years.
[3]
Corporate citizenship
The company's primary philanthropic focus is hunger relief. Since 2000, Tyson Foods has given nearly 41 million pounds of chicken, beef and pork to hunger and disaster relief.
In the past six years, the company has also broadened its financial and in-kind support to include nationwide partnerships with leading hunger relief organizations meeting the needs of hungry children including
Share Our Strength,
America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network,
Lift Up America, and
Feed the Children.
Religious activities
Chairman John Tyson is a practicing Christian. In addition to placing 128 part-time chaplains (ranging from fundamentalist Christians to Catholic priests to Muslim Imams) in 78 Tyson plants,
[4] in 2006, the company invited their customers to download a prayer book, containing prayers from many faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Native American spirituality, from their website to read during mealtime.
[5][6]Controversies involving Tyson Foods
Environmental record
During the past decade, Tyson has been involved in several lawsuits related to air and water pollution. In June 2003 the company admitted to illegally dumping untreated wastewater from its poultry processing plant near
Sedalia,
Missouri, pleading guilty to 20 felony violations of the federal
Clean Water Act. As part of the plea agreement, the company agreed to pay $7.5 million in fines, hire an outside consultant to perform an environmental audit, and institute an "enhanced environmental management system" at the Sedalia plant. At the same time, Tyson also settled a case filed by the Missouri attorney general's office related to the same illegal dumping.
The
United States Environmental Protection Agency began the investigation into the discharges in 1997, and federal officials served two criminal search warrants at the plant in 1999. According to EPA and U.S.
Department of Justice officials, Tyson continued to illegally dump wastewater after the search warrants were executed, prompting an EPA senior trial attorney to remark that: "Having done this work for nearly 20 years, I don't recall any case where violations continued after the execution of two search warrants. That's stunning." Under the federal and state plea agreements, Tyson agreed to pay $5.5 million to the federal government, $1 million to the Pettis County School Fund and $1 million to the Missouri Natural Resources Protection Fund to help remedy the damage.
[8]
In 2002 three residents of Western
Kentucky, together with the
Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit concerning the discharge of dangerous quantities of ammonia from Tyson's Western Kentucky factories. Tyson settled the suit in January 2005, agreeing to spend $500,000 to mitigate and monitor the ammonia levels.
[9]
In 2004, Tyson was one of six poultry companies to pay a $7.3 million settlement fee to the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to settle charges that the use of chicken waste as fertilizer had created phosphorus pollution in Tulsa's main drinking water sources.
[10]
Use of questionable slaughtering methods
From December 2004 through February 2005, an undercover investigator for
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed to have worked on the slaughter line of a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Heflin, Alabama. Using a hidden camera, he allegedly documented the treatment of the more than 100,000 chickens killed every day in the plant.
PETA alleges that workers were instructed to rip the heads off of birds who missed the throat-cutting machines. He claims he saw birds scalded alive in the feather removal tank, and he said that managers said that it was acceptable to scald 40 birds alive per shift. Interestingly the job the investigator was hired to do was to prevent the alleged abuses he videotaped: preventing birds from going into the scald tank alive. The investigator claims plant employees were also seen throwing around dead birds just for fun.
PETA has asked Tyson to implement
Controlled Atmosphere Killing. For this reason,
PETA is boycotting businesses that use Tyson as a supplier, such as
KFC and distribution channels such as
Sunset Strips. The video, taken by the investigator of the killings, was posted on
YouTube.
[11]
In 2006, Tyson completed a study to determine whether
controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS), which uses gas to render chickens unconscious before slaughter, could be a more humane practice than conventional electrical stunning. According to Bill Lovette, Tyson's senior group vice president of poultry and prepared foods, the study found no difference between the humaneness of the two methods. The company plans to ask scientists at the
University of Arkansas to initiate a similar study to test these initial results.
[12] The research will be led by the newly created Chair in Food Animal Wellbeing at the
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences of the
University of Arkansas. Tyson has committed $1.5 million to help establish the Chair, which will be involved in overseeing research and classes focused on the humane management and treatment of food animals.
[2]
Employment of undocumented immigrants
In 2001, Tyson was charged with conspiracy to smuggle undocumented workers to work on its production lines. Tyson plant managers arranged for delivery of illegal workers with undercover immigration officials. Prosecutors alleged that the conspiracy to import workers dates back to 1994 when plant managers began to find it difficult to fill positions with legal workers. Of the six managers who were indicted, two accepted plea bargain deals, and one committed suicide one month after being charged. In March 2003, a federal jury acquitted Tyson of having knowingly hired illegal immigrants.
[14][15]
In May 2006, Tyson suspended operations at nine plants during a nationwide day of immigration demonstrations citing expected lack of workers.
[16]
In October 2006, a federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit brought by Tyson employees who allege that Tyson's practice of hiring illegal immigrants depresses wages 10-30%. The suit further contends that the company violated federal
racketeering laws by conspiring with
National Council of La Raza and League of United Latin American Countries not to question the employment applications of anyone with a Hispanic surname.
[17][18][19]
Posting of "Whites Only" sign in the workplace
In
September 2005, thirteen
African American workers at a Tyson Foods
poultry plant in
Ashland,
Alabama filed a
discrimination lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit brought allegations of discrimination over several years, including a "Whites only" sign on a bathroom door and the use of
racial slurs and other
racist comments.
[Berry, D.B. (2005, August 19). "Whites only" sign stirs a lawsuit. ''Newsday''. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.][Tyson Foods sued for race bias and retaliation against Blacks; "Whites Only" restroom at issue. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2005, August 11). Retrieved on August 21, 2007.] Workers who complained about the disparate treatment were summarily suspended or suffered disciplinary actions by the management.
[20] Tyson Foods later paid $871,000 to resolve the claims of the group of plaintiffs who filed the discrimination lawsuit.
[21]
References
1. "Tyson Foods forms Tyson Renewable Energy"
2.
3. "Tyson Foods Turning Fat Into Fuel"
4. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America, , Chris, Hedges, Free Press, ,
5. http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47034
6. http://www.tyson.com/Recipes/GivingThanks/
7. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/tysons.html
8. "Tyson pleads guilty in pollution case, will pay .5 million in fines". ''Corporate Ethics and Government'', June 25, 2003. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
9. "Tyson Settles Air Pollution Suit for 0,000". ''The New York Times'', January 28, 2005. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
10. "udge OKs lawyer fees in water suit". ''Tulsa World'', February 5, 2005. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
11. "Former Tyson foods employee speaks out against abuses"
12. Gregerson, John. "Tyson asks university to perform animal welfare research". ''Meatingplace.com'', October 9, 2006. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
13.
14. Tyson Says Top Bosses Didn't Know Poovey, Bill
15. Tyson Foods Acquitted Of Illegal Hiring Poovey, Bill
16. Tyson to shutter plants over immigration protest
17. Tyson Foods faces suit over illegal workers Ott, Tanya
18. Ruling helps workers claiming Tyson hired illegals to cut wages Poovey, Bill
19. Tyson Foods illegal hiring lawsuit set for March 2008 trial. (2007, January 29). Market Watch. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
20. EEOC sues Tyson over "whites only." (2005, August 12). Workplace Answers, Inc. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
21. Tyson resolves employment case. (December 2006). ''Render Magazine''. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
External links
★
Corporate web site for Tyson Foods
★
Consumer web site for Tyson Foods
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